Apple Seeds iOS 27.3 Beta 1 and iPadOS 27.3 Beta 1 to Developers

Apple has released iOS 27.3 beta 1 and iPadOS 27.3 beta 1 to developers, eight days after iOS 27.2 went out to the public. The first beta is where Apple Intelligence testing starts in China, and Apple says the public release of iOS 27.3 is set for December. The update brings Apple Intelligence in China to iPhones, with Alibaba’s Qwen built into Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. Registered developers can install the developer beta from Settings, General, Software Update.

iOS 27.3 beta 1 opens Apple Intelligence testing to iPhones in China

The first wave of features runs on iPhone only, and the Mac, iPad and other devices wait for further approvals. It supports the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 and later models, iPhone Air and iPhone Duo, with Siri and the device language both set to English or Simplified Chinese. Siri hands certain requests to Qwen, including questions about photos and documents such as PDFs and presentations. Writing Tools gets a Create option that lets Qwen write original text from scratch, and Visual Intelligence uses it too. You reach Qwen through a Qwen account or Sign in with Apple, and the rest of Apple Intelligence runs on Apple’s own generative models. Type to Siri comes with the update, and Siri follows what you mean through loose phrasing while keeping context across follow-up questions. Siri AI and the other next-generation Apple Intelligence features from WWDC 2026 are not part of the China release.

Live Translation, Photos tools and Mail summaries come with the China update

Messages, calls and AirPods

• Live Translation works in Messages, FaceTime and Phone.
• Live Translation for AirPods handles face-to-face conversations on AirPods 5, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, AirPods Pro 2 and later, and AirPods Max 2, and needs the latest firmware and a paired iPhone with Apple Intelligence turned on.
• Smart Reply suggests quick replies in Mail and Messages.

Photos, Notes and Phone

• Clean Up removes distracting objects from photos.
• Natural-language search finds a photo or video from a typed description, and memory movies are built from a description too.
• Genmoji turns a typed description into a custom emoji.
• Phone and Notes transcribe recorded audio and can summarize the transcript.

Mail, notifications and the camera

• Priority Messages sit at the top of the Mail inbox, and one tap generates the key points of a long email or thread.
• Notification summaries and Priority Notifications sort the Lock Screen, and a Reduce Interruptions Focus lets only urgent alerts through.
• Writing Tools rewrites, proofreads and summarizes the text you type.
• Visual Intelligence identifies objects and places through the iPhone camera on every iPhone with Apple Intelligence, although some of its features depend on language or region.

Reachability on iPhone Duo and Apple Pencil support on iPad also arrive in the betas

Mark Gurman posted on X that the betas include more than the China features. Apple has not listed these in its China announcement, so they come from his post.

• Reachability comes to the iPhone Duo.
• The new iPhone Duo StandBy mode is available on iPhones that are not the iPhone Duo.
• Siri Mode is supported in the Camera app.
• On iPad, Visual Intelligence works with Apple Pencil in iPadOS 27.3.

https://x.com/markgurman/status/2117692790176166025

The StandBy faces and layouts were first spotted in iOS 27.1 code, and StandBy on iPhone Duo already starts without a charger when the phone is folded. Reachability on the iPhone Duo is the one item here with no earlier coverage.

The Health app and four more Siri AI languages are still due this year

iOS 27.2 went out without the redesigned Health app, which Apple says will be available later this year, starting with English in the United States and more languages to follow. Apple has not said which update brings it. Siri AI language support is the other open item. iOS 27.2 added French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, and Apple has committed to adding Chinese (Traditional), Norwegian, Turkish and Vietnamese by the end of the year. Siri AI is still a beta in iOS 27.2 and remains unavailable in the EU on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.